iOS

Why is AAPL so wonderfully profitable? This may help explain it:

[ISI Group’s Brian] Marshall makes reference to a note he put out on November 15th of last year, in which he argued Apple’s revenue is secured in the same way as the cable companies, with a high recurring aspect as users buy a “$650 high-end ‘set-top box’ with an ~18-month replacement cycle,” as he characterized it.

Hence, he estimates that the “implied value per iOS user” right now is $1,900.

The first hit's (not quite) free.

FaceBook was counting everyone who ever looked at an iPhone, apparently:

A few days ago, Facebook divulged the number of users of its mobile apps. The most impressive figure from their posting also turned out to be the most controversial -- according to Facebook, more people were using its Facebook for iPhone app (104 million) than the actual number of iOS devices out there (around 100 million units, inclusive of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).

~snip~

44 million Facebook for iPhone users is still a substantial percentage of the iOS devices out there, but it's a number that makes far more sense than the earlier 104 million figure. Facebook certainly is ubiquitous, but it was stretching credibility to claim that virtually every iOS device out there was running its iOS app.

I wonder if the recent global FaceBook membership claims were similarly inflated?